Effect of Cultural Distances on Online Reviews
(A2021-94605)

AUTHORS

Rahul Srinivasan, Indian Institute of Management Udaipur; Prakash Satyavageeswaran, Indian Institute of Management Udaipur; Sundar Bharadwaj, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia

ABSTRACT

Online reviews provide a medium for customers to comment on products or experiences from anywhere across the world. This study examines the effect of culture on the review ecosystem, which comprises of the reviewed object and the reviewer. We propose that the difference in culture of the countries of reviewed and the reviewer will affect the way a reviewer rates the reviewed object. We test our research questions in the context of the hotel industry. Our dataset comprises of reviews extracted from TripAdvisor and we measure cultural distances by using Hofstede’s indexes. We have tested our research questions for an initial dataset of reviews and have found some encouraging results. We present the management implications for the initial findings and chart the further course of actions for this research.